Before introducing you to Missy I want to post a quick update on Heather's Gaby... we are all glad to find that Gaby is NOT diabetic after all!! Also, please send out hugs and healing thoughts to Cyn's asthmatic cat BooBoo. My cat Random is asthmatic also and wants to share a feline asthma website with everyone. I didn't know about it when he was first diagnosed, but there is also a Yahoo Group for asthmatic cats.

Now back to Missy. She is an approximately 11 year old rottweiler; we're not sure of her exact age since she was rescued as a stray. Occasionally she has recurrences of Lyme Disease symptoms, such as fever, apparent joint pain, and weakness in the rear. Since she is still a bit weak in the rear following her last four-week course of antibiotics, and her appetite has been off for the last several days, she'll be visiting the vet tomorrow. I'll provide some more background on Missy, plus a report on her vet visit, tomorrow evening.

It seems strange to think that I've had Charlie in my life for as long as I have. When I checked the band on her leg to confirm her year of birth, I almost thought I was reading it wrong... 1981?? How time does fly.

I didn't know much about birds in general or cockatiels specifically when I bought her. I apparently stumbled upon a good bird shop and got a healthy young bird in Charlie. The shop is still in business and still well regarded, although I haven't been by there in a long time. I remember bringing her home in a heavy cardboard box with little holes punched in it... carefully strapped down to the luggage rack of my first very small Honda motorcycle.

I still don't know all that much about cockatiels. I don't know for sure if she is indeed a "she". We never had her surgically or chemically sexed as it wasn't very important to know for sure. I've always assumed she is a she because of her coloration. After the first molt, grey males would generally have bright yellow feathers on the face, as well as bright orange cheek patches, neither of which she has. I also know she is not show quality because her long flight feathers cross over her back, which I guess is conformationally incorrect.

She's a good bird but never did bond to me as well as I once hoped. She's been in very good health up until a couple of weeks ago, when my husband noticed that her eye appeared to be irritated. Because she's been a generally healthy bird, I didn't think it was anything very serious; certainly nothing that a quick trip to the avian vet for medications wouldn't take care of.

I failed to take into consideration that once a bird starts acting noticeably ill... it's usually very ill. I was shocked to hear she would benefit from hospitalization, as the eye irritation was only a part of what turned out to include nasal irritation and a possible respiratory infection. The hospital was shocked to hear she was 20 years old and that this was her first real illness of any sort. Apparently the usual lifespan of a cockatiel is somewhere from 15-17 years.

Being in the hospital would allow her to receive injectable antibiotics and treatments in a nebulizing cage, neither of which she could receive easily at home. Now her eye irritation is almost entirely cleared up and she is breathing and eating much better, so it's time for her to come home. I'm not sure yet what kind of extra home care she will be needing at first. I'm going to call the vet in a few minutes to confirm her pick up time for tomorrow, and I'll have an update here on Saturday once she's back home.

Charlie, my 20-year-old cockatiel (yes, that's right, 20 years old) will be coming home from the bird hospital on Saturday! She has been there for not quite two weeks with some respiratory problems and accompanying nasal irritation and conjunctivitis. Now that she is doing better and eating well once again, it's time for her to come home.

Since we've just started things going here I haven't had a chance to write up her background; I'll put that in in today's extended entry if I get some time later. Or maybe I'll let her be tomorrow's topic.

Yuki has an appointment for a blood glucose curve tomorrow. She will be at the vet all day, from 8:00am until I pick her up after work. She will get her daily insulin shot this evening, and be fed as usual tonight. We leave some dry food out for her overnight (yes, it is unusual to free feed a diabetic pet, but it has worked well for her up until now). Tomorrow her blood glucose level will be measured every couple of hours through the day. By the time of the last blood draw she is pretty cranky, but we will have a better idea of how to adjust her insulin dosage as it appears to be too low at this time.

You can read a little bit more about blood glucose curves and how they are interpreted here and here. And come back here on Saturday morning for an update on Yuki!

We now have smilies!

Not just for me to use in the main and extended entries... for YOU all to use in your comments, too!

Look in MORE... for the credits and particulars. I'll add a link over by there (points left) with the info on what to type in to get the smilies. It's pretty standard so the usual stuff you would normally use should work.

Now on to our main focus... the critters!

I thought I'd start off with a little bit about Yuki, my diabetic cat. She is ecstatic about knocking the dogs out of the main spotlight on the dog:blog with her entry. She gets the first one partly because it looks like she needs to have her insulin dosage adjusted, and partly because Heather (fellow Chicagoan and former O21G'er) is facing a recent diabetes diagnosis for her guinea pig Gaby.

Yuki turned 16 years old in February; I've had her since she was 8 weeks old. She's been an indoor cat her whole life and has been in pretty good health for most of that time. I can't remember any vet visits for her other than annual checkups, spaying and declawing (if you were planning to comment on the cruelty of declawing, spare me... I have gone back and forth on that issue many, many times on my own).

Last spring I took her in to the vet as her water consumption and urine output had increased quite noticeably over the period of a couple of weeks. Sometimes in a multiple cat household it's hard to tell what a cat is really taking in and putting out; that is why it took us a little while to determine there really was a problem. She was diagnosed with diabetes on March 10, 2001.

Once the correct dosage of insulin is determined, it's pretty easy to keep up with the daily routine. And in our case, we were fortunate that it took only a few tests to get her dosage adjusted. I found out sometime later that it is not always that quick or easy to determine the correct dosage, timing of injections, or type of insulin to use. We really were lucky, not only with the relative speed of determining her correct dosage, but with the fact that she did well for an entire year on only one injection per day (that is uncommon; most pets do best on two per day).

Lately we've noticed Yuki's water consumption increasing again, so it is definitely time to have her back to the vet to do another glucose curve and have her insulin dosage re-evaluated. More soon after that happens. It's almost 8:00am here so I'd better get this wrapped up so I can call for her appointment!

Check under MORE... for some informative pet diabetes links and a picture of Yuki taken this past summer.

...I'm adding a link to my answers to Cyn's Ultimate Survey! Aaagh, I suppose I can also put it into the extended entry (see "MORE...")...

The pull is just tooooo strong... I cannot resist the Blog Force any longer!! Aaaaaggghhhhh...